


Only Yesterday

by astrocrown



Series: HalBarry One Shots [3]
Category: Green Lantern (Comics), The Flash (Comics)
Genre: Angst, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Nightmares, a bit of nsfw dialogue, is this a tired old trope? yes. am I sick of it? no, light fluff and cuddling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-28
Updated: 2018-03-28
Packaged: 2019-04-13 22:21:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14122077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/astrocrown/pseuds/astrocrown
Summary: Hal has a nightmare while spending the night with Barry.





	Only Yesterday

As far as Barry had been able to tell, Hal didn’t talk in his sleep. There’d been a few times since they started sleeping together where Barry thought he’d heard him mumbling, but it was so inaudible that it might have just been the wind outside. He never thought anything of it. Most nights, the pair slept well together (well, when they actually _slept_ ), and though Hal had the tendency of hogging the blankets, Barry had nothing to complain about and the same seemed true for Hal. 

For Barry, it was nice enough to have Hal at home. These days, Hal was spending more and more time away from Earth, often gone for weeks at a time. Maybe more. Sometimes, the only time that the pair would have together was a night or two before something came up again, so it was automatic for Hal to show up at some random time with the intent to crash at his place. It was always nice to have Hal around, even if all they had time for was sleep.

Hal had arrived earlier this evening with more than just a few bruises. What was supposed to be a simple trade negotiation between two alien worlds had gotten out of hand, resulting in a horrible battle that Hal was forced to try and stop without taking sides. A lot more difficult than it sounded, and he took quite the beating. 

Barry had helped nurse his wounds, but thankfully it was nothing serious. Some gashes here and there and a black eye, but nothing he had to go to the emergency room for, so Barry kept him home. 

“I don’t have a lot of energy, so you can top tonight,” Hal said, pushing an ice pack against his swollen eye. 

Barry frowned as he applied a bandage to a gash on Hal’s shoulder. “We’re not having sex like this. What you need is rest.”

Hal groaned childishly. “Fine.”

This was considered pretty normal. Hal would vanish for some time, get banged up all to hell but still manage to save the day, and come back for whatever kind of quality time with Barry they had the energy for. It was the Hal Jordan way, and Barry couldn’t even be too stressed out about it because he could be just as bad sometimes. In any event, nothing seemed out of the ordinary when they finally went to bed that night. Hal was in pain but still making jokes and seemed like his usual self. The only thing on Barry’s mind was Hal’s injuries, but since none of them were serious, he wasn’t gonna lose sleep over it. 

They’d started out the night facing each other as they fell asleep. The last thing Barry remembered before his body had given from the weight of his own long, tiring day was Hal’s sleepy smile and brown eyes sparking back at him. Bruises, cuts, and black eye or not, Hal still managed to be as handsome and charming as ever. Somehow.

But the night didn’t go nearly as peacefully as Barry expected. 

At some point in the middle of the night, a noise had woken him. He opened his eyes to find that Hal had rolled over and was now sleeping with his back to him. Hal almost seemed to curl into himself slightly, and Barry realized that the noise he heard was Hal speaking. 

Barry was immediately puzzled by the strangeness. He couldn’t hear what Hal was saying, but this time, unlike previous times, he was sure Hal was talking. Was he awake?

“Hal?” Barry whispered softly. 

Hal kept talking without acknowledging him. 

It could be nothing, but somehow this just didn’t feel right. Barry sat up and glanced down at Hal, where he could get a better look at him. He immediately noticed that his eyes were shut tight and his expression was pained. Hal wasn’t awake, and when Barry reached out and put a hand on his shoulder, he noticed that Hal was trembling as well. 

“Hal,” Barry whispered again. “It’s okay.”

Barry debated waking him up. Depending on what kind of nightmare he was having, waking him up might cause a bit of a shock to him. Maybe he could just get him to calm down and the dream would be chased away. Either way, he’d never seen Hal react like this to a dream before. 

He leaned down so he could hear what Hal was saying. 

“I have to make it right. Everything is wrong. I have to make it right.” 

Make what right? What kind of dream was Hal having?

“It’s all gone. It was never supposed to be this way. I have to make it right. I have to make it right. I have to go back...”

Okay, this sounded bad. Barry put his hand on Hal’s shoulder again, nudging him gently. “Hal. Hal, wake up.”

Hal’s voice turned into a dark, pained growl. “I don’t want to hurt you, get out of my way! Get out of my way!” 

A sense of urgency boiled within Barry and he nudged Hal a little harder this time, raising his voice. “Hal. Hal! Wake up!” 

It was a good thing that Hal wasn’t sleeping with his ring on, because Hal suddenly sprang up and aimed his hand like he was about to shoot a construct or an energy beam at someone. The sudden movement caught Barry off guard, but the speedster was quick enough to react by wrapping his arms around Hal and pulling him close.

“Hal, it’s okay,” Barry said loudly but gently. “You’re home, wake up. It’s okay.” 

Hal froze and began breathing heavily. For a moment, he didn’t move, as though he were confused about where he was.

“Hal, it’s me. It’s Barry. Everything is okay. Everything’s okay.” 

Barry felt Hal’s body relax against him. Okay, he seemed to be awake now. Good. Even though he was leaning on Barry, though, his face fell into his hands and it became very clear that whatever dream he had been having wasn’t just a dream for him. 

Barry continued to hold him, stroking his arms. “Nothing’s hurting you. It’s not real.” 

“It _was_ real,” Hal said. He moved his trembling fingers through his hair, trying to compose himself. “It was real, and nothing will ever change that.” 

Now Barry understood what this was about and what kind of dream Hal had been having. Hal never talked about it and had done his best to work past it over the course of several years, so it was easy to forget that sometimes his days as Parallax still haunted him sometimes. Barry hadn’t been around those days, and he shuddered to think about what would have happened if he was, but he understood the situation well enough to know that Hal didn’t deserve to still have these nightmares. Or at least, that was his opinion. 

“It’s in the past,” Barry said softly, nuzzling against Hal’s shoulder. “It’s not who you are and you’ve worked beyond that.”

“But...what if it is.”

“Hal, don’t do this to yourself.”

“What if it’s just that one event waiting to happen to…to push me over the edge again.”

Barry pulled himself off Hal and shifted on the bed to face him. He took his hands and looked right at him. “A lot has happened since then. You have so much experience now that you didn’t have before and you’ve learned so much. These days, you’re better than you’ve ever been. That’s why you’re still the greatest Green Lantern. Nothing can take you over that edge. Not anymore.”

Hal tried to look back at him but had trouble holding eye contact. “Yeah. Maybe.” 

Barry frowned. “How often do you have these dreams? I’ve never seen you react like that before.”

“Every once in awhile. Not like every night or anything, but….”

“But?”

Hal sighed and rolled his head to the side, scratching the back of his neck. “Those trade negotiations I told you about that went sour? Well, there was a group of villagers from the one planet who had their homes destroyed by some insurgents from the other planet. At least, that’s what they claimed. There was no proof. But those villagers and the rest of the people on that planet are generally peaceful yet, when their homes got destroyed, they were stealing military ships, weapons, and other tech to get revenge on the insurgents. They were ostracized by their own people as a result, but it caused a lot of tension between the two planets. So I went down trying to keep things smooth during negotiations, and, well, you know the rest. I had to fight those villagers. They were killing people on both sides. But when I fought them, I just knew the pain they were in. It’s the same pain I was in after the destruction of Coast City. And I had to fight them.”

“I see,” Barry said, looking down. “But no matter how much something reminds you of what happened, it doesn’t change the progress you’ve made.”

Hal frowned and moved closer to Barry, leaning against his chest. Barry responded by wrapping his arms around him, allowing his boyfriend to lean on him as much as he wanted. He rested his chin on top of the brunet’s head. 

“Yeah,” Hal said quietly. “Yeah, you’re right. It just felt a little too real.” 

Barry held him a little tighter. “I know the feeling. I have nightmares, too. Sometimes you can wake up and it doesn’t matter, other times...it’s hard to move.” 

Hal nuzzled his face against Barry’s chest. “Yeah.”

“You just have to remind yourself of how far you’ve come. It matters, even when it doesn’t seem that way.” 

Hal shifted his head again and looked up at Barry with an earnest expression. Even though the memories and the nightmare still pained him, he looked as though he were finally taking Barry’s message to heart. He knew who he was, sometimes it just helped to be reminded. 

“When I look at you,” he said, his voice soft, “it’s easier to remember who I am now.” 

Barry smiled, feeling his heart flutter. “Guess you have to keep me around, huh?”

Hal grinned. “Save the jokes for me, I’m better at them.”

“Hey, I can be funny sometimes. I can’t let you have all the fun.” 

“You tried telling me a chemistry joke before we went to bed, Bar.”

“It was a funny joke!”

“For a nerd.”

“Yeah, but you laughed,” Barry said. 

Hal made a face at him. “Yeah, whatever. C’mere.” He put his hand on the back of Barry’s head, pulling him down for a soft kiss. 

Following the kiss, Barry felt Hal’s body relax even more, which put his mind at ease. The more that Hal could put the nightmare out of his mind, the better. He just wanted Hal to be able to rest, especially after his rough mission.

“It’s still early. You think you’re okay to get some more sleep?” Barry asked. 

Hal smiled softly. “Yeah, I think I am.” He grabbed Barry by the shoulders, pulling him down with him. He kept Barry close as he pulled the blankets over them again, then proceeded to wrap an arm around him. Barry gladly snuggled against his side. 

“Dream of me instead,” the blond said.

Hal grinned. “Maybe I’ll be so lucky.”

**Author's Note:**

> Had a bad day so I decided to write one of my favorite tropes. Thanks for reading!
> 
> My twitter: [halhighball](https://twitter.com/halhighball) | My tumblr: [msgrayson](http://msgrayson.tumblr.com/)


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